New ICON Survey Highlights Importance of Combination Therapies in Future Obesity Treatment
January 24 2024 - 7:00AM
Business Wire
ICON plc, (NASDAQ: ICLR) a world-leading clinical research
organisation powered by healthcare intelligence, today announced
results from a recent industry survey of over 100 professionals
engaged in obesity-related clinical research to measure industry
opinions on trends within this therapeutic area. The majority of
respondents believe the future of obesity therapies lies in trials
that are designed to measure more than one outcome. There is much
overlap between obesity and co-morbidities such as diabetes,
steatosis (fatty liver), and cardiovascular disease, and in line
with this, most respondents (64%) felt combination therapies would
be the primary focus of future research. Furthermore, half of
respondents are employing multi-indication studies in their current
obesity-related clinical studies.
Obesity is a growing health concern worldwide, with at least 2.8
million people dying each year because of the disease1. Two-thirds
(66%) of respondents were confident in their obesity-related
pipeline success prospects in the current market. They did,
however, highlight challenges in obesity-related clinical studies
around the current lack of long-term follow-up studies (44%), lack
of appropriate obesity-specific trial design (39%), and difficulty
in diverse patient recruitment (38%).
Simon Bruce, VP of Internal Medicine at ICON commented, “The
focus on combination therapies cited by respondents is, in our
view, indicative of the potential to make significant advancements
in obesity clinical research in the coming years. There is more to
examine on the implications of obesity as a risk factor across the
disease spectrum and how it may impact treatment, drug development
and clinical trials for obesity. We are seeing a growing interest
in the simultaneous development of assets. This is something we are
actively exploring at ICON in order to improve efficiencies, and to
support more treatments to better meet the needs of the current
population.”
Sponsors must also invest in long-term studies in obesity to
determine the lasting impact of effective treatments. This clinical
data will help in terms of commercialising an obesity treatment and
will benefit patients through the tracking of safety data for a
longer period, in addition to demonstrating the impact of obesity
drugs on longer-term co-morbidities such as heart disease or
diabetes. Because obesity is so closely connected with such health
events, treating obesity may reduce their occurrence — and
long-term data is important in determining a treatment’s impact on
them.
Jack Martin, Senior Director, Cardiovascular Therapeutics at
ICON, points to the recent significant advances in the development
of obesity-related treatments, from drugs to devices, commenting:
“It has shone a light on the future potential of obesity treatment.
The findings in this survey are constructive in identifying areas
that we can focus on to continue these advancements. What’s clear
is that taking a holistic view of the disease and its related
co-morbidities – from diabetes to MASH and cardiac conditions – is
a hugely important consideration for the clinical trial design of
potential new treatments.”
Globally, there are currently more than 1,000 ongoing clinical
trials2 involving obesity drugs from pre-clinical to phase III
trials. Many of the drugs being investigated are injectable and
target GLP-1 hormone receptors and other hormones involved in
satiety and metabolism, but others are exploring different
mechanisms.
As researchers look to progress the field of obesity treatment,
there are several unique considerations to account for in their
approach to drug development and clinical trials. ICON has
consolidated the latest thinking on current approaches to treating
obesity and outlined considerations to improve future clinical
trial design in the new whitepaper, entitled, "A multifaceted risk
factor: Addressing obesity's impact across the disease spectrum".
Highlights include:
- A look at the guidelines to treat obesity issued by various
healthcare associations that advise a combination of lifestyle
changes and pharmacotherapies, as well as more intense methods like
bariatric surgery
- New pharmacological treatments currently in clinical trials,
including several new GLP-1 receptor agonists, individually as well
as in combination with other mechanisms, such as GIP and glucagon
agonists
- Strategies to enhance recruitment among underrepresented
populations to significantly increase the diversity of trials
- Using clinical trial tokenisation to gather real world data on
the safety and effectiveness of a drug long after a trial has
concluded, enabling deeper insights of disease and treatment
patterns over time
For further information please visit
www.iconplc.com/obesity.
About ICON plc
ICON plc is a world-leading healthcare intelligence and clinical
research organisation. From molecule to medicine, we advance
clinical research providing outsourced services to pharmaceutical,
biotechnology, medical device and government and public health
organisations. We develop new innovations, drive emerging therapies
forward and improve patient lives. With headquarters in Dublin,
Ireland, ICON employed approximately 41,150 employees in 106
locations in 53 countries as at September 30, 2023. For further
information about ICON, visit: www.iconplc.com.
ICON/ICLR-G
1 Source: Obesity.
https://www.who.int/news-room/facts-in-pictures/detail/6-facts-on-obesity
2 Source: Global data:
https://www.globaldata.com/data-insights/healthcare/number-of-ongoing-clinical-trials-for-drugs-involving-obesity-by-phase-505142/
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240124995130/en/
Claire Quinn Corporate Communications, ICON +353 87 4066091
claire.quinn@iconplc.com Weber Shandwick (PR adviser) Lisa Henry
+44 7785 458203 lhenry@webershandwick.com
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